FRANCE
Confidence dips three points
Consumer confidence this month fell further below its long-term average to its lowest level in more than three-and-a-half years, data from statistics agency INSEE showed. The monthly reading dropped to 92 from 95, while economists were expecting only a one-point decline. Consumption is already facing disruption from protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s gasoline taxes. Minister of Finance Bruno Le Maire on Monday said that sales for large retailers have fallen by as much as 35 percent on days when protesters have blocked roads, fuel depots and warehouses. With household spending and investment making up about 60 percent of GDP, consumer weakness could dent growth at the end of the year and derail the government’s deficit reduction plans.
INTERNET
Facebook behind Alibaba
Facebook Inc crises this year have weighed heavily on the social media giant, dragging shares more than 37 percent from their July peak and erasing nearly US$240 billion in value. The fall has allowed Chinese Internet behemoth Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) to once again overtake Facebook in market capitalization. It is the second time this year Alibaba has topped its US rival, the first coming in March following revelations surrounding Cambridge Analytica.
UNITED KINGDOM
One-quarter of pubs lost
The nation has lost almost one-quarter of its pubs since the financial crisis a decade ago, but the decline has not been uniform, with big chains gaining at the expense of small independent hostelries, which have struggled with rising costs, shifting consumer habits and a challenging economic environment. Wiltshire and Birmingham have been the worst-hit areas since 2008; Hackney in east London, the center of a craft-beer boom, has seen the largest number of pub openings, Office for National Statistics figures showed.
GAMING
‘Fortnite’ draws over 200m
Hit e-sport title Fortnite has now hooked more than 200 million players, up from Epic Games Inc’s estimate of 125 million registered users in June. The game’s player count is also five times the company’s tally in January. The game is free to play and available on multiple devices, from mobile phones to traditional video game consoles, with Epic making money by charging players for decorative items such as costumes and props. Those purchases add up. Last month, Epic raised US$1.25 billion from an investor group that included KKR & Co, Vulcan Capital and Kleiner Perkins in a deal that valued the closely held company at US$15 billion.
HONG KONG
Housing suggests correction
The housing market is suffering its worst declines since 2016 — by multiple measures. New-home sales this month are on track to be the lowest by volume since January or February, Midland Realty (美聯集團) data showed. Used-home prices have fallen for eight weeks, the longest losing streak since 2016, according to the Centa-City Leading Index (中原城市領先指數). In addition, used-home prices have this month recorded the biggest single-week decline since March 2016, falling 1.3 percent week-on-week, the data showed. Anecdotal evidence, such as reports of slow sales at a Country Garden Holdings Co (碧桂園) project, is also fueling speculation that the world’s least-affordable housing market is heading for a correction. So far, secondary home prices have dipped 5 percent from an August high.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day